David Lynch + Psychological Horror Games

On a related note (to my last post, that is) My girlfriend and I went to the IFC Center to check out the new David Lynch film. This went about as well as you can expect:: an incomprehensible narrative, some very convoluted plotting, strange inside references, and occasional bouts of (not unwelcome) nudity. We saw the actor Justin Theroux after the show, and he attempted to answer some questions, but mainly just reinforced the notion that no one besides Lynch has any idea what's really going on. That is to say, David Lynch was in fine form.

The film also gave me the moment to fantasize, as does any lengthy period of semi-boredom, about video games I'd make. The first one I came up with would involve an alien (who looks like the baby in "Eraserhead," maybe) inside your house, creating passages to other buildings, times, and dimensions and slowly driving you insane. The other one would involve trying to prevent your own death by assuming control of the bit players you encounter throughout your day, which happens to be the last day of your life. I'd expect neither to sell well, if at all.

Reminds me: Whatever happened to the "psychological horror" genre of video games? Do those still exist? I'm talking creepy horror titles – the kind of horror that doesn’t feature zombies constantly jumping out of sewers (not to mention gigantic mutant alligators.) Stuff like "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" and "Darkseed".




Some might argue that those sorts of adventure games (that elicit a deeper and creepier sense of horror and dread) largely disappeared when consoles became popular and started edging out computers for the video gamer's hard-earned dollar/yen/etc. -- the old "console gamers aren't as smart as PC gamers" theory -- but I know Darkseed also came out on the Sega Saturn in Japan. And, hell, there were plenty of creepy moments in Final Fantasy games, for my money. But still, the FF series isn't fundamentally about horror, so the problem stands.

Maybe one day we'll have computer horror games that frighten and disturb by means other than that tired old routine of having zombies play possum, before suddenly becoming reanimated and jumping up -- usually just as you're walking your character out of the room. Is this some sort of industry requirement in survival horror games? I'm just wondering.